JACK'S BIG SECRET.
The next day Jack found an opportunity to sandwich in some work on his
invention between his regular work. The thing fascinated him, and he
tried and tested it in a hundred different combinations. Suddenly, just
after he had altered two important units of the device, a new note came
to his ears through the "watch-case" receivers that were clamped to his
head.
"It's code--somebody sending code!" exclaimed Jack, and then the next
instant, "it's some ship of the navy! Hurrah! The detector is working,
for they use different wave lengths from the commercial workers, and, if
it hadn't been for the Universal Detector, I'd never have been able to
listen in at their little talk-fest."
He waited till the code message, a long one from Washington to the
_Idaho_, of the North Atlantic fleet at Guantanamo, Cuba, was finished,
and then he could not refrain from "butting in."
"Hello, navy," he chattered with the wireless key, "that was a nice
little message you had. How's the weather up your way?"
"Who is this?" demanded the navy wireless in imperious tones.
"Oh, just a fellow who was listening," responded Jack.
"Butting in, you mean. But say, how did you ever get on to our sending?
We were using eccentric wave-lengths to keep our talk a secret."
"I'll have to keep how I caught your talk a secret, too, for the
present, old man."
"Great Scott! It isn't possible that you've solved the problem of a
universal detector. Why, that's a thing the navy sharps have been
working on for years."
"I can't say how I caught your message," shot back Jack's radio through
space.
"You'll have to tell if the government gets after you," was the reply.
"Uncle Sam isn't going to have a fellow running round loose with
anything like that."
"What do you mean?"
"That you will be forbidden to use it."
"Is that so?"
"Yes, that's so. I'm going to make out a report for my superiors about
it right now. You're pretty fresh."
"Put that in the report, too," chuckled the _Columbia's_ wireless
disdainfully.
"You'll find it's no joke to monkey with the government," snapped back
the naval man.
Jack didn't answer. A message from the _Taurus_, of the Bull Line, was
coming in. She had sighted an iceberg, something very unusual at that
time of year. Jack hurried the message, which gave latitude and
longitude of the menace, to Captain Turner.
"Well, that won't bother us," said that dignitary. "We're far to the
south of that. Those Bull fellows run to Quebec. Send a radio to Captain
Spencer, of the _Taurus_, thanking him for his information."
The great man, the captain of a liner, who has literally more power than
a king, lit a cigar, and bent his head once more over the problem in
navigation he was wrestling with. Jack saluted and hurried back to his
quarters.
He was highly elated over the success of his Universal Detector. The
threats of the government man did not alarm him, for he did not propose
to place his invention on the general market, but to sell it outright to
the government, whose secret it would then remain.
He resolved to test it again. A moment after he had put the receivers to
his ears, a broad grin came over his face. The air was literally vibrant
with the calls of the navy men, flinging their high-powered currents
through space.
"... he's a cheeky beggar, whoever he is, but he's got the goods," was
the first he heard.
"Hum, that's Mr. Washington," thought Jack. Then, from some other point
came another message.
"Great Scott! Uncle Sam won't let him get away with anything like that."
"I should say not. The Secret Service department is already at work
trying to find out who the dickens he is."
"That will be a sweet job," came the naval station at Point Judith.
"Talk about a needle in a haystack," sputtered the U. S. S. _Alabama_.
"Not a patch on it," agreed the great dreadnought _Florida_.
Then came Washington again.
"I'll tell you it's stirred up a fuss here," he said. "I wonder who it
can be."
"Maybe that Italian fellow who invented the sliding sounder," suggested
the _Florida_.
"Or Pederson, out in Chicago," came from a land station. All the navy
men appeared to be joining in the confab.
"Gracious, what a fuss I've stirred up," thought Jack, with a quiet
smile. "They'd never guess in a million years that it's a kid of an
operator who's causing all the trouble."
"No; both the men you mentioned are in Europe," declared Washington.
"The department's been trailing them since they got my news."
"Well, the wireless men are going to be a happy hunting ground for the
Secret Service fellows for this one little while," chuckled the
_Florida_.
"Wonder if he's listening now?" struck in the _North Dakota_, which had
not yet talked.
"Shouldn't wonder," remarked the _Idaho_.
Jack pressed down his key and the spark began to flash and crackle.
"You fellows are having a grand old pow-wow," he said. "Sorry I can't
give you any information. I know you're dying of curiosity."
"You've got your nerve, I must say," sputtered Washington indignantly.
"Have you been listening right along?"
"Yes; that Secret Service hunt is going to be very interesting."
"It won't be very interesting for you, whoever you are, when they get
you," thundered the mighty _Florida_. "It's bad business monkeying with
Uncle Sam."
"Maybe they won't get me," suggested Jack's spark.
"Oh, yes, they will," came from Washington, "and you'll find it doesn't
pay to be as sassy as you've been."
"M-M-M," sent out Jack mischievously.
The three letters mean, in telegraphers' and wireless men's language,
"laughter."
Washington's dignity took fire at this gross insult. They must have
sizzled as from the national capital an angry message shot out to the
other ships to talk in code. Jack's fun was over, but he had thoroughly
enjoyed all the excitement he had stirred up. As he laid down the
receivers Raynor came in.
"You look tickled to death over something," he exclaimed. "What's up?"
Jack sprang to his feet. His eyes were shining. He clasped Raynor's hand
and wrung it pump-handle fashion. Raynor looked at the usually quiet,
rather self-contained lad, in blank astonishment.
"What's happened--somebody wirelessed you that you're heir to a
million?" he demanded.
"No, better than that, Billy."
"Great Scott! Tell me."
"Billy, old boy, it works. It works like a charm. I've got half the navy
all snarled up about it now. By to-morrow they'll be after me with
Secret Service men."
"Gee whillakers. You've done the trick! Good for you, old boy."
A sudden shadow in the open door made them both look round. Thurman
stood in the embrasure.
"May I add my congratulations?" he said, holding out his hand.